The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire, more particularly to a tread pattern capable of improving on-ice performance without sacrificing dry performance and on-snow performance.
In order to increase traction and friction of a pneumatic tire on icy roads, the tread portion of the tire is usually provided with siped blocks which can exert excellent edge effect on icy roads as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. JP-A-2009-190677 and JP-A-2007-118704.
When a siped block is compared with the non-siped block, the rigidity of the block becomes lower and there is a possibility that dry performance and on-snow performance are deteriorated. From such a viewpoint, the pneumatic tires disclosed in the above publications have room for improvement in achieving dry performance, on-snow performance and on-ice performance at the same time.